With the resounding victory in the first European Duel against Wales (3-0), the Dutch national team not only did what it had to do-winning the weakest opponent in a strong group-but also restored confidence in national coach Andries Jonker.
In the run -up to that first game, Saturday evening in Luzern, there were several uncertainties around Orange, of which they were not even the most exciting. Because of his own actions, national coach Jonker had questioned his own position on the eve.
As far as the selection is concerned, it was uncertain for a long time whether the ideal attack duo could start the competition, or could participate at all. Both Vivianne Miedema and Lineth Beerensteyn were injured for a long time last season and had to work hard on recovery. Miedema could eventually play – and how. On the stroke of half -time, she scored her hundredth goal as an international with one of Bastian action. It broke the game open and gave her teammates the energy and inspiration to safely secure the win in the second half.
Beerensteyn, who, since arrival last week in the Basin Kampen on the Thunersee, could only fully train again for a few days, turned out to be able to invade the last twenty minutes. In that final phase, she showed the more than 14,000 spectators in the allming stadium that she is indeed a super striker: fierce in the duels, quickly in the sprint, agile at the ball. She was very close twice, but goals were not for a while.
If Beerensteyn and Miedema recover well from their efforts, it could just be that national coach Jonker can draw up his most dangerous vanguard on the two toughest jobs in the group phase – against title holder England on Sunday evening against France on Sunday evening.
In the mutual game between these two favorites, France won 2-1 against England on Saturday. This can be favorable for the Netherlands for two reasons. England will have to take more risk next Wednesday, so that the Orange may get more leeway. The French could already qualify for the quarterfinals in their second game, on Wednesday against Wales. Then the Netherlands may have a little easier in the last and decisive group match in Basel next week.
KNVB never gave clarification
Buíten The field played another issue that can affect the Dutch national team on this European Championship: the authority of national coach Andries Jonker. That got a big blow in January when the KNVB brought out after this tournament that he would no longer want to continue with him. Jonker and his players only had the chance to respond to this in February. At a press conference in Zeist, the national coach then turned out to be not amused but neatly served his contract.
The players who already wanted to say something about it – captain Sherida Spitse, for example – said they would continue to support the national coach. Jonker kept saying that the group continued to go through the fire on the training field and in the competitions for him and for each other. So according to him, the issue had no influence on the team. He screwed up the ambition to go for the title at the European Championship.
The upcoming departure and the way in which the KNVB had brought out that decision nevertheless continued to raise questions. Why exactly the union does not want to continue with Jonker, Responsible KNVB director Nigel de Jong never wanted to explain. Rumors swallow that determining players have complained to technical director De Jong about Jonker’s working method.
The only thing De Jong himself said about it: “We want to take a new path.” Already in April he presented Jonker’s successor: 38-year-old Arjan Veurink-the current assistant of Sarina Wiegman, the national coach of England.
Read also
With her hundredth goal, Vivianne Miedema gives Vleugels to the Orange at this European Championship
Strangely enough, it was Jonker himself who picked up his involuntary departure on Thursday. In an extensive conversation with the NOS Football Podcast He had said he had considered stepping up before the European Championship, even quite recently after a few bad games in the Nations League at the end of May, early June. He also said: “If a trainer’s contract is not extended, then the authority of that trainer is another.”
On Friday evening, a remarkable press conference followed in the Luzerne stadium, in which Jonker faded furiously to a journalist who questioned his story. And he explained that he had consciously made his statements at the NOS to sharpen his team and make it a unity. He had already done that internally by having all players and staff members put their signature on an orange shirt shortly before the European Championship, as a token of trust in the team’s mission: winning the European Championship. Those who did not sign, explained Jonker, could go home.
Lightning rod or bluff?
At the next press conference, Saturday evening after the game, Jonker himself also had a slightly different reading of the interview at the NOS. No, it was not a preconceived plan, but once he was asked about the trust in his own position, “I just headed him.” And then thought: I can use this during the preliminary discussion on the first game to create unity in the team. How exactly, he also did not explain well on Saturday evening.
What exactly Jonker has moved to make his upcoming departure again the subject of speculation remains unclear for the time being. Did he want to be a lightning rod to keep his players out of the wind? Or was it an unfortunate one Slip of the Tongue Which he then did not explain well? In his own Amsterdam: Has he clamped himself?
Or was it a sample of bluff to give the impression that as a national coach he has a sophisticated plan for everything? In that case, Jonker has determined a risk. Because if the Netherlands had not played well against Wales and had not caught three points, then not only the starting position in the group would have been particularly weak, but also – as Jonker has already formulated it – “the authority” of the trainer.